Friday, November 30, 2012

Some notebooks do not have any BIOS option for enabling or disabling touchpad. You can achieve this by using Fn + FX key combination, but this time another problem occurs in some notebooks that do not memorize that action. For every reboot of the system, you need to disable touchpad manually as previously. Do not worry! Using synclient utility, you can tell the computer to do it instead of you.

Below command will disable touchpad.

synclient TouchpadOff=1

For enabling touchpad, you need to set value to 0 and run this command in terminal as in below.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

If you have full Slackware 14.0 installation, you possibly have xbacklight package installed on your box if you did not uninstalled it.

Slackware provides xbacklight package in official file tree under .../slackware/x/ directory. If your box does not have xbacklight installation, you can simply install it by slackpkg tool as following. (For using slackpkg, firstly you need to be configured it.)

Thursday, October 18, 2012

You are Cisco Network Academy member and want to install Cisco Packet Tracer on Slackware 14.0. Unfortunately, only Ubuntu (*.DEB) and Fedora (*.RPM) Packet Tracer download options exist officially, but it is possible to install it on different GNU/Linux distributions including Slackware. Follow this guide to achieve this!

If your system based on 64-bit, you firstly need to switch to multilib for installing Cisco Packet Tracer. (For switching to multilib, look at end of the guide.)

To download Packet Tracer, you need to log in to Academy Connection (you must be a registered Networking Academy student, alumni, instructor, or administrator).

1.
After logging into Academy Connection, select the Packet Tracer graphic to download. Then you will be redirected to the downloads page.

2.
Click on Cisco Packet Tracer Program Downloads link under Software Downloads sub-section.3. Installing Packet Tracer 5.3.3 from Generic Fedora *.TAR.GZ file, simply by executing install script in it, destroys Slackware 14.0 /etc/profile file. If you do not have a backup of this file, you will need to edit /etc/profile file manually to fix command prompt settings. To avoid this result, we will use *.BIN file instead of *.TAR.GZ file. Now, download "PacketTracer533_i386_installer-rpm.bin" binary file adapted for GNU/Linux Fedora including tutorials.

4.
Open a terminal emulator and change current directory to where downloaded "PacketTracer533_i386_installer-rpm.bin" file locates.5.
Now, we will extract native Fedora RPM package in BIN file by initializing setup.Become root,su
Change file permissions,chmod 755 PacketTracer533_i386_installer-rpm.bin
Run binary file,./PacketTracer533_i386_installer-rpm.binAfter running binary file, content of the "PacketTracer533_i386_installer-rpm.bin" file will be extracted to
/tmp folder.6.
Now, for viewing EULA (End User License Agreement), you will be asked to press the ENTER key.

7. Do not press the ENTER key, just abort the installation by CTRL+C key combination.

8.
Go to /tmp/selfextract.XXXXXX folder ("XXXXXX" is the value assigned by your computer.)If there is no another
/tmp/selfextract.XXXXXX folder in /tmp folder, below command will take the command prompt to the directory where the extracted Fedora RPM package locates.cd /tmp/selfextract.*9.
Using RPM2TGZ tool, convert RPM package to TGZ package.rpm2tgz PacketTracer-5.3_3-u.i386.rpm10.
Install TGZ package generated by RPM2TGZ tool by using INSTALLPKG tool.installpkg PacketTracer-5.3_3-u.i386.tgz11.
Now, we need to add executable symbolic link of Cisco Packet Tracer to /usr/bin directory to be able to start program from command line interface shortly by packettracer command.ln -s /usr/local/PacketTracer5/packettracer/usr/bin/packettracer12.
Return to user command prompt by exit command.exit13.
Start Cisco Packet Tracer as user by packettracer command.packettracer

Friday, October 5, 2012

I bought a new notebook (Ivy Bridge Micro-Architecture) and installed Slackware64 14.0 running on long term supported 3.2.29 Linux kernel. After installation, everything was good. A new notebook, a new release and a new kernel... While studying on Slackware in the next hours, OS suddenly freezed. Then, I experienced again the same thing a few more times. After googling the problem, I saw that many people had experienced the same problem on Ivy Bridge Platform using 3.2.x Linux kernel. Upgrading 3.2.x kernel to 3.5.x completely solved the freeze problem for me.

Below, I explained that how 3.5.4 linux kernel simply compiled and installed along side the 3.2.29 Linux kernel on Slackware64 14.0 using "config-huge-3.5.4.x64" kernel configuration file in "/testing/source" directory of the official Slackware tree (or Slackware installation DVD). You can also use one of the other kernel configuration files depending on your choice and os architecture.

For switching to the new kernel 3.5.4, open a terminal emulator and run the following commands correspondingly.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

That's right, the long wait is finally over and a new stable release of Slackware has arrived! Since our last stable release, a lot has changed in the Linux and FOSS world. The kernel has moved on to major version 3 (we're using the long term supported 3.2.29 kernel for this release), X.org has released X11R7.7, and Firefox has had a whopping *11* major releases to arrive at version 15.0.1! We've brought together the best of these and other modern components and worked our magic on them. You'll find new compilers (including the LLVM/clang compiler that's becoming a popular alternative to gcc), development tools, libraries, and applications throughout, all prepared with our careful and rigourous testing. If you've used Slackware before, you'll find the system feels like home. But we've also added new features such as NetworkManager for easy setup and management of wired and wireless networking (or, you can still use the traditional network setup if you prefer). And, we've updated the desktops and window managers to recent versions as well.For additional information, see the official announcement and the release notes. For a complete list of included packages, see the package list.
Build scripts for all kinds of additional software for Slackware 14.0 can be found on the slackbuilds.org website.
Need help? We've launched a new documentation site, docs.slackware.com. Thanks to Eric Hameleers for getting it up and running. Stop by and share your knowledge!
Please consider supporting the Slackware project by picking up a copy of the Slackware 14.0 release from the Slackware Store. The discs are off to replication, but we're accepting pre-orders for the official 6 CD set and the DVD. The CD set is the 32-bit x86 release, while the DVD is a dual-sided disc with the 32-bit x86 release on one side and the 64-bit x86_64 release on the other. If you're looking for something stylish to wear for the end-of-the-world celebration coming up in December, be sure to check out our new Mayan themed Slackware 14.0 T-shirts! And we still have some 13.37 shirts left, too, because leet never goes out of style. Thanks to our subscribers and supporters for keeping Slackware going all these years.
Thanks to the rest of the Slackware team for all the hard work getting 14.0 ready for action! And of course, thanks to all the open source developers upstream, and to the Slackware community on linuxquestions.org for all the help getting things just exactly perfect.
Have fun, and enjoy the new stable release!
Pat and the Slackware crew
+--------------------------+
Slackware 14.0 for ARM is also available. For details, see:http://www.armedslack.org